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For the Sake of Others, Love Yourself
When we fail to accept ourselves, we prime ourselves for aggression.
One of the most heartening observations to be had is that we find life here on Earth, in all its various manifestations, to be remarkably peaceable. There isn’t an animal alive that, barring some ailment of the mind, will be aggressive without provocation. There is in nature, beyond the requisites of survival, a ubiquitous peace accord. Yes, we will hunt one another as we must to sustain ourselves, but beyond this we will do no harm.
It is for this reason that self-love is of the upmost importance. One’s opinion of themselves serves as a lens through which they view the world. Insecurity is quite literally a sense of being in danger as the word itself connotes. (The Merriam-Webster definition for “security” is “free from danger.”) The individual who feels insecure is one who more easily feels attacked. This sensitivity predisposes them to acts of preemptive or reactive aggression.
Our peaceable nature, being deviated from only when under attack, results in a sequence of sad effects emanating from many an insecure individual. The insecure person, perceiving attacks where there are none, lashes out in the form of actual attacks, creating a sense of insecurity and a need to defend in another, moving them away from their…
